Tree Removal After Storms

[treeseer]

Great article in April's Arborist News about the post-Katrina hysteria. Bumbling governments and crooked contractors in a tag-team rape of what's left of their urban forests.

The "curious about pricing" thread here was about heathy 40' oaks in Florida that guys are fighting over the chance to cut down, before it descended into namecalling.

Cull, hack, treehugger, troll--what's the point?

THe best post of all was about the futility of being the 101st guy with a chainsaw, fighting for removal work. I don't know if any of you noticed, but we are aswarm with immigrants who labor cheap. If all you guys can do is climb and cut, you are doomed to fighting over a shrinking number of trees with a rising number of removal specialists.

In Raleigh the number of treecudders in the yp tripled after a hurricane, and the quality of work went into the toilet. Now it sounds like the same thing has happened in Florida and Katrina country. Do the math!

1. Trees grow a lot slower than the labor force is.

2. There has been an explosion of good instruction on climbing and rigging lately.

3. Education on diagnosis and risk management is scarce.

If you don't learn about and sell tree care (which is not rocket surgery), you are doomed to either lowering your standards or being underbid. Your jobs will dry up as your body breaks down. Not a pretty picture.

 

[Sirpouralot]

Amen!

 

[woodchux]

How may people here actually plant any trees ?

 

[Redbull]

I just planted a Crabapple for a customer the day before yesterday. I took my 6yr old son with me because he has shown a strong interest in learning about trees. It was a fun experience for us both.
It's close to our house and we drive by it often. He's very excited about seeing the progress this tree makes in the future.

 

[Kate Butler]

trees installed

I put trees in every year for clients. Some years I put trees in for myself. Many times i 'rescue' small trees and plant them in better locations just to give 'em a shot at growing. These are small trees that would be coming out because of the landscape desires of clients - not taking them without recompense. Just trying to make the world a bit prettier place to live in (sappy, but true, no pun intended).

 

[rebelman]

I plant trees. Everytime I remove one I recommend making a raised bed and installing a smaller variely tree with ample mulch zone. This makes more sense to me than grinding stumps. It goes to the heart of our job, do we let the customer tell us what they want, featureless green rubber stamp yards, or do we tell them what they need, eco-friendly features to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and soften our urban landscapes. Arborists are equipped with wood chips, many areas have harsh soil or erosion that can be slowed or stopped with a few chips. Off topic probably...

By the way, treecudders; that smacks of namecalling. Good post though as usual Guy.

 

[clearance]

All the people that plant-good, nice to see that.

 

[antigrassguy]

Customer called last late june and wanted a 28' white pine removed and stump gone because it was in the way for a septic field. So I got a local with a big tree spade and moved it home. Next day we had 15% humidity and 30 mph winds and about 75*-80*F. Didnt rain for 4-5 weeks. All the perfect conditions for transplanting an oversized tree with severe root loss. Have been able to keep candles up, but winter burn is a problem. Still not anywhere near out of woods, but the old bugger is still hanging in there and Ive hooked up tree to a ICU equivelant.
We also lease land to a local farmer, but every year the hay field gets a little smaller. We are planting a woods with lots of non-native trees. Yellow ones,purple ones, red ones, weepers, droopers, varigated, grafted, deciduous and conifers. Every once and a while we plant one for someone else. Have donated about 40 to local park. Plant them for arbor day and have planting classes for anyone that shows up. Fun stuff.

 

[Insometry]

Went down to the Joplin Mizzou area for a funeral today.

The tree "trimming" down there was like nothing I had ever seen...since I started looking.

Huge trees chopped down to a bunch of even 10' branches. Ugly stuff...alot of residentials had it. Looked recent. Was sad.

 

[shucksters]

I hate hackers

 

[Jumper]

I help with removals but also have planted a fair number of replacement trees and shrubs. The other guy in town is a tree topping unprofessional hack so it is not hard to look good compared to him. Unfortunately the town's rife with examples of his "work" and that is what people come to expect their "trimmed" tree should look like.

 

[LightningLoader]

I didn't even know that tree guys would plant trees for you. Never heard of such a thing around here. They only seem interested in getting rid of the trees for you. Disgusting around here b/c they take out huge oak hammocks to put in patio homes, then the only "landscaping" that they do is put one mangy palm tree in the front yard. :censored:

 

[snowtree]

i plant trees